“Satanists are born, not made”

The expression “Satanists are born, not made” presents Satanism as an identity rooted in disposition rather than produced by upbringing. In the book, Varg Vikernes invokes it while answering a question about Anton LaVey’s statement, and describes his own commitment as something he could not have escaped even in a different environment.

The Expression and Its Context

The phrase is introduced as LaVey’s statement and put to Vikernes as a question about whether he agrees. The surrounding exchange establishes that he regards Satanism as more than an adopted set of ideas: he says not everyone can be a Satanist, and connects affinity for Satanic imagery with a particular way of feeling and thinking. He credits LaVey with drawing people toward anti-Christian thought and Satanic imagery, while suggesting that LaVey himself may have been more spiritually involved than his books indicate.

Vikernes’s Personal Claim

Vikernes describes himself as having turned to become a Satanist, yet says he feels he could not have been anything else. He extends that claim beyond the circumstances of his upbringing: even if raised in a different environment, he believes he would still have become a Satanist. The expression thus serves as a concise account of his sense of inevitability, while his description of having turned to Satanism leaves room for a distinction between becoming one and feeling inherently suited to it.

Commitment and Consequences

For Vikernes, the identity was consequential rather than merely symbolic. He says it was important to him and had affected his whole life and way of thinking. He also describes its costs: in the small town where he lived, people knew who he was and looked at him for that reason, while people at his workplace could be skeptical. Although he sometimes wished he could be more anonymous, he said these difficulties would not make him give up Satanism. The statement therefore expresses both a claim about who he believed himself to be and the persistence of that identity despite social repercussions.